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I picked up maybe 10 pounds of christmas lights for free from the dump and man oh man was I excited when I saw just what was inside each bulb. It looks like each and every single bulb has a gold plated connector. There are probably about 1,000 of these bulbs. I imagine that these are older style christmas lights. They are the small kind that you would use outside. I'd hate to put them into the scrapyard and get such a meager amount of $$$ before taking out these gold plated parts (crazy time consuming I know but its the thrill of finding my own gold) Has anyone else tried this before?

I hate to pee on your parade, but are you sure it's really gold plated?

Most of the time yellow colored metal is brass or another metal plated with brass.

I've never seen gold plated parts in those kind of light strings. However, I've seen several with brass and copper socket parts.

Items that originally retail for low prices rarely have any precious metal content.

Also, the demands of ordinary holiday decorating don't call for such an expensive material.

Thanks for the information! I figured there might be a chance since they looked so old but you are right. Into the scrap cord pile they go!

Would christmas lights be considered #2 copper wire since they are only insulated one time unlike #3 copper wire which is double insulated or heavily insulated?

I am trying to put together my first scrap pile and have separated things nicely into groups but I am just unsure where to put my Computer Ribbon cords (those flat wide ribbon things in computers) as well as christmas lights.

A lot of yards have a separate (lower) price for Christmas lights because of the plastic sockets and bulbs. If you cut off the lights then it would be the same price as other insulated wire, but that's a time consuming endeavor...

Christmas Lights.
In my area, only one yard was taking them. They paid out 1/2 of insulated copper.
Around the first of the year, I was told to not bring any more in.
They said they had 3 bales that they could not find a buyer for.
They also said I was not to cut off the sockets & toss the wire in with regular insulated copper. They didn't want any Christmas wire period. (due to the low copper to plastic ratio).
They said I was just to throw it in with the shred (I just saved it in a garbage can at home for better days)

This week I took in 3 loads of steel & was told they are once again taking Christmas lights glass bulbs & all 20 cents a lb.

cut off the bulbs and they go as #2 ins wire by me. I mix the computer ribbion cords in as well.

Fantastic thanks for the tips guys!

I am filling up this garbage bag now very tightly packed with #2 and #3. I don't really understand why you would ever not just strip #1 copper wire if I am understanding things correctly.

Coaxial cable would be considered copper #1 I would imagine, although it does have a lot of insulation is it like a solid copper core.

Tantalar wrote:Coaxial cable would be considered copper #1 I would imagine, although it does have a lot of insulation is it like a solid copper core.

No. Most coaxial cable you'll find scrapping falls into one of two low grades:

1) Steel core. This sticks to a magnet. Many yards will refuse to take it, but some will pay for it. Those that pay will usually pay light iron/shred scrap price for it.

2) Copper core. Better than steel core but not as good as #3 insulated. Yards more knowledgeable about wire will have a special price for this.

There are many other types of coaxial cable made of many different materials, but those two are by far the most common.

Wow, thanks! It seems like it is fairly easy to strip the coaxial cables so I will just do that with any that I get

Tantalar wrote:Wow, thanks! It seems like it is fairly easy to strip the coaxial cables so I will just do that with any that I get

Military grade coax used to have a copper core and copper shielding. Some of the TV stuff has aluminum foil shielding and I have no idea what in the middle. The military grade coax used a dense plastic insulation between the two, cheap grade has had several types of insulation. I'd not count "all coax" as anything, just deal with what you get.

It looks like some are out there. http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090128042

The yard I go to just refuses to take coaxial cable.